Chapter 43: Graviton

Just as Lex continued sweeping across the mountain range in search of remaining escapees, Raphael suddenly interrupted his thoughts with a priority alert. An emergency distress signal originating from the SHIELD response force flashed through the communication network, accompanied by rapidly escalating casualty projections. Changing direction immediately, he accelerated toward the indicated coordinates, crossing several snow-covered ridges before the battlefield finally came into view. The rear emergency exit of the Vault had descended into complete chaos. Military vehicles lay overturned across the mountainside, sections of reinforced concrete had been ripped apart as though struck by an earthquake, and entire patches of snow had been compressed into smooth sheets of ice under impossible pressure.

High above the devastation floated a single man.

He appeared almost ordinary at first glance, perhaps in his late fifties, his once-dark beard already streaked heavily with white. There was nothing particularly imposing about his physique or clothing, yet the effortless way he hovered hundreds of meters above the battlefield gave him an authority that dwarfed everyone below. Chunks of shattered rock orbited lazily around him like miniature moons, occasionally drifting apart before snapping back into place under invisible forces. Even the falling snow behaved strangely in his vicinity, flakes slowing to a crawl before spiraling unpredictably around him as though gravity itself could no longer decide which direction was down.

Iron Man streaked through the sky toward the floating scientist, repulsors blazing brightly as he closed the distance.

Then, without warning, his flight simply... stopped.

The brilliant blue flames beneath his boots flickered violently before being overwhelmed by an invisible force. Instead of continuing forward, Tony's armored body abruptly lost momentum and plummeted toward the mountains below like a meteor. His thrusters screamed at maximum output, yet the suit continued falling faster and faster as though an entire mountain had suddenly been chained to his back.

"Sir!" JARVIS warned inside the helmet. "External gravitational forces have exceeded thrust capacity!"

Tony gritted his teeth.

"Yeah... noticed!"

Before the armored Avenger could become intimately acquainted with the mountainside, an enormous green figure launched upward from below. Hulk intercepted him in midair with one massive hand, absorbing enough of the momentum to prevent Tony from becoming a crater before the pair crashed together into the snow, carving a trench dozens of meters long across the frozen ground.

Lex arrived only moments later.

"Got anything?" he asked Raphael while keeping his eyes fixed on the levitating figure above.

<Subject identified as Franklin Hall. Former theoretical physicist. Exposure to an experimental gravity manipulation device resulted in complete control over localized gravitational forces. Following multiple civilian casualties, SHIELD neutralized him through chemical poisoning and transferred him to the Vault. Current designation: Graviton.>

"A gravity manipulator..."

Lex immediately reached out through the Force, attempting to counteract the invisible pull surrounding Graviton. Before his own power could properly take hold, however, the older man's calm gaze shifted toward him. Graviton didn't speak. He merely raised one hand and made a simple downward motion with his fingers, as though pressing upon an invisible surface.

The effect was instantaneous.

It felt less like being pushed and more like the entire planet had suddenly decided to fall on top of him.

Every muscle in Lex's body screamed under the overwhelming weight. The Force still obeyed his commands, but no matter how much energy he poured into maintaining flight, gravity simply crushed it back toward the earth. His descent accelerated despite every attempt to resist, forcing him to abandon conventional flight altogether.

Instead, he clapped his hands.

The world twisted for an instant as Boogie Woogie exchanged his position with a loose boulder suspended several hundred meters away. The crushing force vanished the moment he left the affected area, allowing him to stabilize himself once more.

"So flying's not happening..."

Far above them, Graviton didn't even bother looking back. Apparently deciding none of them represented a genuine threat, he calmly resumed drifting toward the distant horizon, moving at a leisurely pace despite floating high enough that the surrounding mountain peaks seemed little more than jagged white teeth beneath him.

"He doesn't even care we're here," Lex muttered.

A roar interrupted him.

Hulk crouched low before exploding upward with enough force to shatter the frozen ground beneath his feet. The leap carried him hundreds of meters into the air, his enormous hand reaching toward Graviton. For one brief moment it looked as though he might actually reach him.

Then gravity changed.

Hulk's ascent slowed dramatically.

The green giant strained harder, muscles swelling beneath emerald skin as he fought against the invisible pressure bearing down upon him. Despite his effort, the upward momentum died completely before he could close the final distance, sending him crashing back toward the mountainside in an avalanche of snow and shattered stone.

He landed hard enough to split the ridge in half.

Lex winced.

"Anyone got a better idea?"

Tony finally climbed out of the trench Hulk had created, pieces of snow sliding from his armor as he ran another diagnostic.

"We could track him," he suggested while watching Graviton continue floating away. "According to SHIELD's files, he still needs food, sleep, the usual biological requirements. Eventually he'll stop somewhere."

Lex shook his head.

"Eventually he'll stop somewhere populated."

Tony didn't answer immediately.

"...Fair point."

"If he reaches a city, we're looking at thousands of casualties." Lex's eyes remained fixed on the distant figure. "I'd rather end this here. If I could just get close enough, Lightning should knock him unconscious before he can react."

Tony looked toward Hulk.

"He got closest."

Both men turned simultaneously.

Hulk simply snorted.

Apparently that counted as agreement.

Without waiting for further discussion, the green giant strode toward Lex, grabbed him one-handed by the back of his jacket as though lifting a particularly lightweight backpack, and once again launched himself into the sky. The mountain beneath his feet erupted under the force of the jump, sending boulders tumbling down the surrounding slopes while the pair rocketed upward.

Wind screamed past Lex's ears.

Graviton finally noticed them approaching.

His expression remained unchanged.

The invisible pressure returned.

This time it came far sooner.

Lex felt the weight increasing with every passing meter, his body growing progressively heavier while Hulk's upward momentum began slowing once again. Muscles bulged across the giant's shoulders as he continued forcing himself higher despite the impossible resistance. The closer they came, the more the surrounding air seemed to distort beneath crushing gravitational pressure.

At the apex of the leap, Hulk roared.

Then threw Lex.

The motion resembled a catapult launching a missile.

Freed from Hulk's slowing momentum, Lex shot toward Graviton at tremendous speed. The distance closed rapidly enough that, for the first time since the battle began, he actually found himself within striking range.

Blue-white lightning exploded from both hands.

Force Lightning surged across the sky in a brilliant web of crackling energy.

Unfortunately, Graviton's gravity field expanded at the exact same moment.

The invisible force seized Lex before the lightning could bridge the remaining distance, dragging him downward so violently that his aim shifted by several degrees. The attack flashed harmlessly beneath Graviton's feet before vanishing into the clouds below.

This time...

Graviton stopped.

He slowly turned around.

His calm expression had finally disappeared, replaced by clear annoyance.

"You insects," he said, his voice carrying effortlessly across the sky despite the distance. "Must you continue buzzing around me?"

He raised both hands.

The world changed.

Lex didn't merely become heavier.

The air itself seemed determined to crush him.

Every bone in his body cracked simultaneously beneath the impossible pressure as he slammed into the mountainside hard enough to bury himself waist-deep within solid stone. Snow compacted instantly into ice beneath him while nearby boulders fractured under the same overwhelming force. Several military trucks parked hundreds of meters away collapsed completely, their reinforced frames folding inward like paper beneath an invisible hydraulic press.

Tony instinctively cut all forward thrust the instant his sensors detected the expanding gravity field.

"JARVIS?"

"I'm calculating structural failure of the armor if we advance another twenty meters, sir."

"...Good to know."

Even at his current distance, warning alarms filled the suit.

Lex barely noticed.

His shattered skeleton had already begun knitting itself back together under the effects of the Essence of the Transcendent Self. Pain simply wasn't something he felt anymore. What concerned him far more was the realization that Graviton hadn't even broken a sweat.

Nearby, Hulk fared considerably better.

He had also been driven into the mountainside, one knee buried deep within fractured stone, yet unlike everyone else...

He was moving.

Slowly.

Painfully.

But unmistakably moving.

His fingers dug into the rock beneath him as muscles swelled visibly larger with every passing second. Veins bulged across emerald skin while the mountain itself groaned beneath the pressure of his footsteps. Hulk let out another furious roar and, against all logic, forced one foot forward.

The gravity increased.

So did Hulk's anger.

Another step.

The ground beneath him shattered into a widening crater.

Graviton's eyebrows finally lifted.

"...Interesting."

Hulk answered by taking a third step.

Each movement seemed impossible, yet somehow the giant continued advancing, his breathing growing heavier while raw strength steadily overcame what should have been an immovable force. Snow exploded around each footprint as though miniature meteorites had struck the mountain.

Lex suddenly smiled.

"I've got an idea."

Without warning he activated Boogie Woogie.

Space twisted.

One moment Graviton floated serenely hundreds of meters above the battlefield.

The next...

He was standing exactly where Lex had been buried moments earlier.

Lex himself found empty sky replacing solid ground beneath his feet.

"What—"

Graviton's surprise lasted only an instant.

Unfortunately...

That single instant proved enough.

Hulk was already there.

The green giant's fist descended like a collapsing mountain, carrying enough force to pulverize reinforced bunkers. The punch collided directly with Graviton—

—and stopped.

Not because Hulk had missed.

Because the air itself had become solid.

A translucent distortion rippled around Graviton as a spherical gravitational barrier absorbed the impact. The force still drove him several meters backward, the ground beneath his feet collapsing into a massive crater, but the scientist himself remained completely unharmed.

"So that's how he's doing it..." Tony muttered while every sensor inside his armor focused on the barrier.

Graviton recovered almost immediately.

His hand snapped upward toward the still-falling Lex.

Gravity obeyed.

Lex's healing bones cracked all over again as an overwhelming downward force seized him midair, dragging him toward the earth with enough acceleration to turn an ordinary human into little more than scattered remains. He hit the mountainside hard enough to split another ridge apart before immediately beginning to heal once more.

At the same moment Tony finally unleashed everything he had been charging.

A brilliant beam of concentrated energy erupted from the arc reactor, illuminating the entire valley as it slammed directly into Graviton's barrier. The mountain beneath the scientist vaporized under the tremendous heat while snow flashed instantly into steam.

The barrier held.

Not a single crack appeared.

When the beam finally faded, Graviton remained floating exactly where he had been.

"That's... mildly concerning," Tony admitted.

Before Graviton could redirect his attention toward Iron Man, Lex clapped his hands once more.

Space folded.

Another exchange.

Graviton abruptly found himself standing where Lex had landed while Lex reappeared safely above the battlefield.

The scientist's expression finally darkened.

"You are becoming exceedingly irritating."

Lex ignored him.

"Raphael."

<Recommendation: Use Nihil Light.>

Lex sighed.

He had expected that answer.

The problem wasn't whether Nihil Light could pierce Graviton's defenses.

It absolutely could.

The problem was everything beyond Graviton.

Last time he had used it, pure luck had been the only reason the annihilating beam had exited Earth's atmosphere without intersecting anything important. Raphael still couldn't determine exactly where it eventually stopped, if it stopped at all. As far as Lex understood, Nihil Light didn't merely destroy matter. It erased it completely, carving a perfectly straight line through existence itself.

He looked past Graviton toward the endless darkness of space.

There were stars out there.

Planets.

Perhaps civilizations.

Perhaps innocent people looking up at their own night sky, completely unaware that a single careless decision on Earth could send annihilation racing across the cosmos.

"...I'd really rather not.”

Raphael spoke once more, her voice as calm and emotionless as ever.

<You are attempting to oppose gravity directly. There is no need. The Force and Telekinesis remain fully functional. Manipulate the target, not the gravity.>

The suggestion struck Lex like a bolt of lightning.

Of course.

He had become so focused on overcoming Graviton's gravity that he had overlooked the obvious solution. The Force wasn't gravity, nor was Telekinesis. They operated on entirely different principles. There was no reason to wrestle with the invisible gravitational field surrounding his opponent when he could simply ignore it altogether and target the man standing inside it.

Without another moment's hesitation, Lex raised one hand toward Graviton. He didn't reach for the gravity surrounding him or the invisible barrier protecting him. Instead, he focused solely on the man himself. His fingers slowly curled into a fist, as though crushing an invisible object.

High above the battlefield, Graviton's expression changed instantly.

His eyes widened as his chest suddenly refused to expand. He instinctively gasped for air, yet his lungs simply wouldn't obey. His face rapidly darkened as both hands flew toward his chest, desperately trying to breathe while his own body betrayed him.

Lex had directly compressed his lungs.

Graviton reacted almost immediately. The invisible gravity surrounding him surged inward, colliding directly against the telekinetic force crushing his chest. The two powers began struggling against one another, invisible waves of force distorting the surrounding air while chunks of rock orbiting nearby suddenly exploded into dust under the conflicting pressures.

That, however, had never been Lex's real attack.

The telekinetic assault had served exactly one purpose—to seize Graviton's full attention.

While the older man desperately fought to reclaim his breath, Lex quietly reached out once more through the Force. This time he wasn't interested in crushing organs or breaking bones. The invisible power slipped past the surrounding chaos, and just before it reached its target, strands of Heretic Magic intertwined with it, transforming the technique into something far more insidious.

The attack no longer targeted flesh.

It targeted the soul.

Graviton sensed something was wrong only an instant before it struck. His eyes widened as an indescribable pain erupted from the very core of his existence, bypassing every physical defense he possessed. His gravitational barrier remained perfectly intact, yet it protected him from nothing. Before he could even comprehend what was happening, the spiritual attack tore through his soul with overwhelming force.

The invisible pressure blanketing the battlefield vanished.

The floating boulders crashed back to the mountainside.

Snow that had hung suspended in midair began falling once more.

Franklin Hall's body remained motionless for a brief second before slowly tumbling from the sky, all life having already left his eyes.

Lex let out a quiet breath as he lowered his hand.

"...That worked."

Not far away, Hulk remained standing where the crushing gravity had pinned him only moments earlier. The green giant looked toward the falling corpse before shifting his gaze onto Lex, his expression making it abundantly clear that he was deeply dissatisfied. The battle had finally become interesting, only for someone else to end it before he could finish smashing the enemy himself.

With an irritated snort, Hulk suddenly swung a massive fist toward Lex.

Fortunately, Lex was still immersed in a heightened state of Force perception. He reacted almost instinctively, catching the enormous punch with telekinesis mere inches from his face. Even so, the shockwave from the halted strike blasted snow across the mountainside and sent loose rocks tumbling down the surrounding slopes.

Hulk glared at him for another moment before letting out one final huff of annoyance. Apparently deciding there was nothing left worth smashing, he turned around and began stomping back toward the battlefield, each heavy footstep leaving deep craters in the snow.

Watching the retreating Hulk, Lex couldn't help rubbing the back of his neck with an awkward smile.

"...I think I stole his kill.”

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